


Tight Spaces

by tianaluthien



Series: Project Neal [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Belle & Neal bonding, Friendship, Gen, Missing Scene, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rumbelle - Freeform, SwanThief, Swanfire - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-28
Updated: 2015-03-28
Packaged: 2018-03-20 02:20:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3633033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tianaluthien/pseuds/tianaluthien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing scene set during Belle & Neal’s journey to the Dark Castle at the beginning of 3B. I’m assuming it took them a few days to get there on foot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tight Spaces

She hates the dark and she hates small spaces. It eats at her and she hates the way her breath grows short and her skin grows clammy. Rumpel never asked her retrieve anything from the cellar. And he made certain there was always a soft nightlight in the room, in the hall. He knew what twenty-eight years locked in the hospital basement had done to her.

The memories are hard to forget. They remain etched in her mind, even though she is free and able to see the sun, to feel the wind and rain on her face again.

So the dreams come. Shadows that claw at her. False memories of a false insanity whispering in her ears, dragging her down into the black until she doesn’t know who she is anymore.

She still can’t face Regina without a shudder, or the sudden rage that roars up from the pit of her soul. The rage that she tries to control by forgiving the Queen.

It only half works. The dreams still come, mocking.

But when she wakes screaming in the night, not knowing where or who she is, Rumpel is there to remind her. The soft burr of his voice, the warmth and gentleness of his spinner’s hands, chase away the ghosts.

Not this time.

She scrabbles in the blackness of the cavern, trapped within the furs, as she searches for him, hoping—

Oh god. He’s dead.

A wail tears itself out of her before she can stop it and she shoves her fist into her mouth. The shadows are moving, reaching for her—

“Belle?” Neal’s voice.

The shows slip back, snarling. She breathes a little easier. “I-I’m fine.”

“Never try and con a con,” he says, and she hears the smile in his voice. There is rustling across the cave, and a moment later he’s sitting next to her. “Take it from a thief.”

A giggle escapes her lips and it sounds hysterical. “I’m sorry I woke you.”

Her eyes have adjusted now, and she sees him shrug. “It’s not like I was sleeping,” he mutters. A match flares and he lights one of the lanterns they’ve brought. It casts a faint yet hopeful glow over his face. “Nightmares are a bitch.”

She sighs and sits up, wrapping the fur blanket around herself to keep out the cold. “What do you dream of?”

Neal shrugs again, uneasy. “Lots of things. Losing Emma and Henry again. Tonight it was the cage. The one Pan kept me in in Neverland. I fu—” He stops, clears his throat, and looks at her sideways. As though he’s just remembered she’s technically his step-mother. “I hate cages,” he finishes, mouth quirking.

The smile on her mouth is real, this time. “So do I.” Then the smile disappears. “Rumpel always—he knew—oh god—” She can’t stop the tears, can’t plug the gaping hole torn in her soul or the anger that no one understands. No one, it seems, except the man sitting next to her.

He’s silent, for a moment, then he puts his arm around her shoulders. “We’ll bring him back, Belle. We’ll find away,” he says, his voice suspiciously hoarse. “And I’m going to see my son again. And Emma.”

She leans against him, still sniffling. She hopes he’s right.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by #nealcassidyweek on tumblr (I don't have a tumblr) and the blogs, especially takingbackouat, who have helped me take back the characters I love. Cheers, guys.


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